


Strength of Belief

by Butterfly_Beat



Category: Mortal Kombat (1995), Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-09
Updated: 2013-11-09
Packaged: 2017-12-31 22:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1037144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterfly_Beat/pseuds/Butterfly_Beat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a time in John Stilinski’s life where he believed in the supernatural wholeheartedly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strength of Belief

**Author's Note:**

> First foray into Teen Wolf, and not quite what I'd intended for my debut, but it's an establishing piece that I wanted to get out before I started in on the piece that follows (which I'd like to have completed before 3B kicks off in January). Light spoilers through the end of 3A.
> 
> It's taken me quite a while to have something I wanted to write in TW - there's so much potential in the universe, but it's never quite caught my mind in a way that encouraged me to run with it. While there's heavy reference to Mortal Kombat (specifically, the 1995 movie that was based off of the game), I hope that this manages to stand reasonably well on its own. If not, I apologize for showing my age.
> 
> As always, comments & con-crit are welcome.

There was a time in John Stilinski’s life where he believed in the supernatural wholeheartedly. Did he take it with a grain of salt? Of course, he’s not a fool. But he’d seen enough, _done_ enough, that he could accept things and go with the flow.

That time ended the day Sonya learned she was pregnant. It wasn’t the only factor - age waits for no man, save the reigning Champion of the tournament - but it was the catalyst that pushed him out of the game. He turned down the few film offers that were still coming his way, made a visit to the Temple of Light, and officially made his way out of the spotlight. It was unexpectedly easy to go from being Johnny Cage, celebrated action hero and superstar, back to being John Stilinski, the guy from nowhere special with big dreams and a knack for martial arts.

Sonya held out longer, because that’s who she was. Nothing was going to dictate her life, hold her down or force her hand. Decisions would be made on her terms, or they would not be made at all. John respected that; it was one of the things that had drawn him to her in the first place.

When the time came for making choices, she took the road they both wanted - a legacy, family of their own where precious little remained. Unlike John, her career had no reason to flicker into oblivion for the sake of privacy and the quiet life. While she was as high-profile as John, in her own way, there were avenues she could explore while avoiding the harsh spotlight she’d drawn as a rising star burning a little too brightly.

They slipped into suburbia, gradually establishing themselves as a quiet couple in the kind of small town where every trip to the grocery store brings a handful of familiar faces and the whole community celebrates the local athletes. Smallville, California - big enough to disappear into, small enough that there was only one high school. Perfect for starting over with their feet planted in the safety of the mundane.

It didn’t last. John knew, on some level, that it was never going to. They’d been touched once, and such things always left their marks, even for non-believers and pragmatists. But it was still a shock when Sonya - Claudia to their neighbors, as a small measure of protection from the darker side of her work with the field office - was the one to pay the price. A botched mission, fieldwork she wasn’t even supposed to be logging, and a blast of radiation that fried her cells so badly that recovery was out of the question.

She came home to die, and they called it cancer and lied to their son. Called it frontotemporal dementia, later, when her mind started going and her body took longer than expected to follow. When she passed, John was on the job, because it was how he dealt with his inability to protect that which mattered most - by protecting others. Stiles was left behind, as he all too often was in those years, to offer comfort no child should have to give at such an age.

When he reached the hospital that night, found her cold and gone, John swore he was done with the world outside of Beacon Hills. Not just the office that had placed Sonya in harm’s way, a decision that belonged to her as much as her superiors, but the whole shebang. He had a son to watch over, a child too smart for his own good and too precious to risk drawing attention to. They would live normal lives, and the past would remain firmly where it belonged.

In a way, John managed to keep his promise - none from the Temple of Light ever came knocking on his door, and lightning never danced suspiciously in his back yard. When Stiles came to him, months of lies and impossibly complicated explanations that sounded as credible as a comic book, John dismissed him out of sheer self-preservation. There were doors that should never be reopened, and belief in anything beyond human nature and hard facts was not a currency he could traffic again.

What he never counted on was the fact that his son was born of the Tournament, and the touched will always shine too brightly to ignore. He should have known better. But then, belief can be a powerful thing. It all depends on what one chooses to believe.

**Author's Note:**

> For posterity, I will concede that after we had a canon cause of death for Claudia Stilinski I went back and edited this to reflect it, since it's the precursor to a larger fic project and I'm not sure how canon/AU I really want it to be. Fortunately, it doesn't impact anything important, it's just a personal universe tidiness thing. :)


End file.
